The Original Flip Phone Design Was Inspired By The Communicator Used In Star Trek. Long ago, in the depths of the cold war, America had a prophet arrive. He spoke not of religious texts and damnation, but instead provided us with a vision of the future so hope-filled, so compelling, that it has indelibly marked the imaginations of man-kind ever since. Star Trek Day celebrates that vision, and the man who created it, Gene Roddenberry. The popular line “Beam me up, Scotty,” was never said exactly in this way in the Star Trek series or film. Star Trek: TNG character Geordi La Forge was named after George La Forge, a devoted fan of the original Star Trek series. George La Forge had muscular dystrophy and died in 1975. Martin Luther King Jr. talked Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) out of leaving Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS). Lucille Ball, from I Love Lucy and head of Star Trek’s parent company Desilu Productions, single handedly kept Star Trek: TOS from cancellation during the first season. The series was finally canceled in its third season, after 79 episodes. Scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory wore “Spock ears” while monitoring the Mariner V on its October 1967 fly-by of Venus. The original pilot starring Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Pike was rejected by the studio. When the show was given a second chance, Jeffrey Hunter had moved on to other movies and a young William Shatner was cast as Captain Kirk. Most male Vulcan names begin with “S” and most females’ names with a “T” followed by an apostrophe. Initially, NBC asked Gene Roddenberry to get rid of the “guy with the pointy ears” partly because they were worried about his “satanic” appearance. “Red-shirting” became a Star Trek slang word for an extra who was killed to demonstrate the danger the main characters were in. The extra almost always wore a red uniform. In tribute to the original series’ “red-shirting,” red- shirted Chief Engineer Olsen in Star Trek (2009) meets his death during an orbital skydive onto a drilling platform while Kirk and Sulu survive. Lieutenant Uhura’s name means “freedom” in Swahili. During the 1991 filming of the Star Trek: Next Generation episode of “Redemption,” Ronald Reagan visited the set and said, “I like the Klingons. They remind me of Congress.” Several famous actors and actresses have made guest appearances in Star Trek films and episodes, including Kim Cattrall, Kirstie Alley, Tom Bergeron, Jason Alexander, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Plummer, The Rock, Iman, Lee Meriwether, Joan Collins, Mick Fleetwood, Stephen Hawking, Ashley Judd, Famke Janssen, Mae Jemison, and Tom Morello. Leonord Nimoy created the famous Spock neck pinch during the episode “The Enemy Within” when Spock was supposed to hit the evil Kirk over the head with the butt of a phaser. Nimoy wanted something more interesting and came up with an answer from within Spock’s hand-orientated background. An October 1967 TV Guide ad by RCA cited Star Trek: TOS as the reason to buy a color TV. Divorce Klingon style means slapping your spouse, reciting the words “N’Gos tlhogh cha!” (our marriage is done) and spitting in your spouse’s face. Captain Kirk’s dramatic pauses in speech have been called “The Shatnerian.” In the original series, it was originally planned for Spock and Uhura to have the first interracial kiss. However, William Shatner stepped in and protested, saying he wanted Captain Kirk to kiss Uhura. According to Nichelle Nichols, Shatner wanted to rehearse all the time to get it right. While they were on a Star Trek movie set, Shatner and Nimoy both stood too close to an explosion and got a ringing in their ears. It never went away. On the episode “Descent,” Stephen Hawking played himself as a holographic image. He appeared in a scene with Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein playing a game of poker. When he was given a tour of the set, he saw the “warp core” and said, “I’m working on that.” Malcolm McDowell’s character killed Captain Kirk in “Star Trek: Generations”, he got death threats, some of them in Klingon A professional linguist in Native American languages was asked to invent Klingon for Star Trek. He speaks Klingon but notes that others have attained greater fluency Shortly before she died, Majel Barrett recorded an entire library of phonetic sounds, allowing her voice to be used in future products outside of Star Trek and, quite possibly, as the computer voice in Star Trek: Discovery. Thus, she could live on as the voice of Starfleet possibly for all time. Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan features cinema’s first entirely computer-generated sequence: the demonstration of the effects of the Genesis Device on a barren planet. The visor Geordi La Forge wore to give him a vision in Star Trek: TNG made his actor Levar Burton 90% blind while filming. Leonard Nimoy fought to get pay equity for Nichelle Nichols on Star Trek in the 1960s Gene Roddenberry was asked by a reporter about casting Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: TNG. “Surely by the 24th century, they would have found a cure for male pattern baldness.” And Gene Roddenberry responded, “No, by the 24th century, no one will care.” Worf has appeared in more Star Trek episodes than any other character. Star Trek hyposprays were invented to get around NBC’s ban on showing syringes on television. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Ferengi were initially created to succeed the Klingons as the new villainous arch rivals of the Federation. After their debut episode, they were rewritten to subsequently be comic foils due to producers finding their appearance comical and non-threatening. Being a Star Trek fan can get you a $500 college scholarship from an organization called Starfleet. William Shatner was so cash-strapped after Star Trek was canceled in 1969 that he ended up living out of his pickup truck. The Back to the Future DeLorean and the Star Trek Enterprise were designed by the same man The original flip phone design was inspired from the communicator used in the Star Trek series. Many of the pipes across the starship in the original Star Trek series had the label “G.N.D.N.” which stood for “Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing.” Star Trek has been referenced in countless shows, most notably The Simpsons, Futurama, and The Big Bang Theory. All shows that abide by the “Live long and prosper” motto. George Takei, who played Sulu in the original series called for a truce between Star Wars fans and Star Trek fans in the mid 2000’s, to unite against Twilight fans. London, England holds the Guinness World Record for most Trekkies gathered in one place, with over 1,100 Trekkies in attendance. Both Klingon and Vulcan have been developed into real languages with their own alphabets. You can learn both languages online, in case you want to learn a language that’s alien to you. All of Khan’s men in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan were Chippendale dancers. In addition to being a highly successful puppeteer, ventriloquist, and TV show host, Shari Lewis was also an avid Star Trek fan who dreamed of writing an episode. She and her husband co-wrote “The Lights of Zetar” for Star Trek‘s third season. Sources: Days of the Year Fact Retriever List 25 Fact Republic Screen Rant.